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Social Theory and the Occupy Movement: an Exploration Into the Relationship Between Social Thought and Political Practice

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University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations Dissertations and Theses Spring 5-16-2014 Social Theory and the Occupy Movement: An Exploration into the Relationship between Social Thought and Political Practice Jahaan Chandler University of New Orleans, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td Part of the Politics and Social Change Commons Recommended Citation Chandler, Jahaan, "Social Theory and the Occupy Movement: An Exploration into the Relationship between Social Thought and Political Practice" (2014). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 1849. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1849 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by ScholarWorks@UNO with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights- holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations Dissertations and Theses Spring 5-16-2014 Social Theory and the Occupy Movement: An Exploration into the Relationship between Social Thought and Political Practice Jahaan Chandler Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uno.edu/td This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UNO. The author is solely responsible for ensuring compliance with copyright. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Social Theory and the Occupy Movement: An Exploration into the Relationship between Social Thought and Political Practice A Thesis: Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of New Orleans in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology by Jahaan Chandler B.A. University of New Orleans, 2012 May, 2014 Acknowledgements I would just like to thank my committee Dr. Pamela Jenkins and Dr. D’Lane Compton for all their help and support throughout this project. I would like to give a very special thanks to my committee chair Dr. Susan Archer Mann. You are my teacher, my mentor, and most of all my friend thank you so much I could not have done this without you! ii Table of Contents Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………………….. iv Chapter 1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………… 1 Overview of the Occupy Movement………………………………………………………….. 1 Origins of the Occupy Movement…………………………………………………………….. 3 The First General Assembly …………………………………………………………... 4 Direct Democracy……………………………………………………………………..... 5 Direct Action………………………………………………………………………….... 7 The Goal of Occupy…………………………………………………………………… 8 Sociological Perspectives on the Occupy Movement …………………………………………. 9 Chapter 2 Theory………………………………………………………………………………………….14 Collective Anarchism ………………………………………………………………….. 14 Anarchism and Marxism………………………………………………………………. 15 Collective Anarchism and Humanism ………………………………………………….16 Individualistic Anarchism……………………………………………………………… 19 Rejection of Natural Human Essence………………………………………………….. 20 The First Anti-Essentialist……………………………………………………………... 22 ‘Oweness’……………………………………………………………………………… 22 The Postmodern turn in Social Thought ………………………………………………..25 Challenging ‘the cogito’……………………………………………………………….. 26 The Postmodern Challenge to Science …………………………………………………29 Power a Poststructuralist Perspective …………………………………………………..30 Chapter 3 Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………...32 Occupy and Collective Anarchism…………………………………………………….. 32 Occupy and Individualistic Anarchism………………………………………………… 33 Rationality and the Scientific Method…………………………………………………. 35 The Occupy Movement’s Misconception of Rationality……………………………… 39 Limitations of the Research…………………………………………………………… 42 Conclusions……………………………………………………………………………. 43 References……………………………………………………………………………………... 45 Vita…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 48 iii Abstract In the 21st century, this planet has experienced an explosion of social movements and protests. From the Arab Spring to the Occupy Movement, global protests had become such a prominent feature of the first decade of the new millennium that Time Magazine named the protester as its person of the year in 2011. This project examines the relationship between social theory and political practice in an attempt to gain further insight into contemporary social movements. In particular, it examines the theoretical assumptions underlying the Occupy Movement in the United States and compares these assumptions with 19th century individual and collective anarchist theories, as well as with contemporary theories that have taken the postmodern turn. The Occupy Movement, Social Theory, Anarchism, Post Structuralism, Occupy Wall Street, Social Movements, Political Action, Post Modernism, Social Thought, Marxism iv Introduction Over the last century, from the Russian Revolution in 1917 to the third wave feminist movement in the 1990’s there has been an implicit, but questionable connection between social theory and political praxis. The disputed relationship between social theory and social movements was epitomized by Karl Marx’s famous quote when he criticized French communists who misrepresented his work: “If that is Marxism than I am not a Marxist”, (Marx; Guesde 1880). Despite an evident need to understand the relationship between social theory and social movements, few studies have explored this relationship for contemporary social movements. While there are numerous studies that investigate the structure, meaning, composition, goals, political efficacy, and history of social movements, few make exploring and analyzing the relationship between theory and political practice the central focus of their research. Yet understanding the relationship between social theory and social movements is increasingly important, especially in the 21st century where the new electronic and digital technologies have so compressed the relationship between time and space that the local is global and the global is local. Indeed, today a social movement that occurs in Egypt can affect the lives of American citizens living thousands of miles away. With the effects of social movements and the demands put forth by these movements becoming increasingly global, exploring the relationship between the social ideas and the political activism that drives these changes becomes an increasingly significant endeavor. If societal institutions are to respond adequately to current social movements than they must understand what drives them. For all of these reasons, this study undertakes this task by exploring the relationship between social theory and the Occupy Movement. Since its emergence in the fall of 2011, journalist, academics, and politicians have all asked the same question; “What drives the Occupy Movement?” Although there have been plenty of broad speculations and vague assumptions, a rigorous study of the question has not been made. This study will investigate the possible connections between anarchism – a modern theoretical perspective that has roots in the 19th century and the more recent postmodern turn in social thought as represented by postmodernism, post-structuralism, and queer theory, as well as the connection between these ideas and the Occupy Movement. Through this exploration, this study hopes to gain insights into the inner workings of the more general relationship between theory and political action. 1 Overview of the Occupy Movement When the Occupy Movement burst onto the global scene in the fall of 2011, its’ “occupation” of New York’s Zuccotti Park represented for many the anger and disillusionment felt by the American public. At the time, the political system in the United States was embroiled in a spectacle of political risk-taking that engendered heated debates over raising the U.S. debt ceiling, which ultimately ended in the downgrading of U.S. credit. Millions of Americans had already lost their jobs and/or homes because of the financial meltdown on Wall Street and the mortgage crisis of 2008, which accompanied it. Faced with high rates of unemployment, unchecked corruption in financial institutions, and political incompetence in Washington, many Americans took to the streets. However, the Occupy Movement was but one of many social movements across the globe that vividly displayed public dissatisfaction with government and financial institutions. Coming on the heels of the populist uprisings in the Middle East dubbed the “Arab Spring” and the growing protests against economic belt-tightening policies in European countries, such as in Greece and Spain, the Occupy Movement was seen as yet another example of growing global unrest. As suggested by author and anthropologist David Graeber in The Democracy Project (2013), many people, “saw what happened in Zuccotti Park as part of a wave of resistance sweeping the planet” (Graeber, 64, 2013). Much like these emerging waves of protest abroad, the Occupy Movement grew exponentially in
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